The creation of brewed or infused beverages through the infusion of a solvent with a solute contained within a filter media has been performed for millenniums. Over time it has come to be understood that the control of brewing variables such as infusion temperature, pressure, and flow rate of solvent through solute change the resulting beverages' chemical composition and taste.
Thus, many brewing systems have been developed that seek to enable flavor modification through selective control of one or more infusion variables. However, few brewing systems facilitate dynamic control of one or more of these variables during an infusion. Of those that do, modifications of one or more variables during an infusion result in changes to other brew variables. This lack of independent variable control makes the optimization, modification and consistent duplication of infused beverages difficult.
For instance, currently available brewing systems that enable users to modify pressure during an infusion rely on back pressure generated in a brewing chamber by a resistive media typically composed of a filter and solute. In one configuration, brew chamber pressure modification is achieved by modulating the resistance of said resistive solute media while holding pumping energy constant. While this does result in a change in infusion pressure, it also changes the infusion flow rate. In another conventionally available system, the user modifies infusion pressure through the variation of solvent pumping force while keeping the resistance of the resistive media constant. This too results in an increase in infusion pressure and simultaneous change in infusion flow rate. Thus, in conventional systems, any attempt to control extraction pressure results in a variation of flow rate during the infusion process. While both flow rate and pressure are known to effect the flavor of a brewed infusion, the magnitude of flow rate variations is known to have a greater effect. Thus, there is an apparent need for a brewing system that affords independent modulation of flow rate independent of infusion pressure. Furthermore, due to the fact that pressure is known to effect the flavor of an infusion, there is a need for a beverage brewing system that is capable of modifying infusion pressure independent of flow rate enabling the user to optimize infused solution chemical composition and produce consistent beverages.
It is well understood that infusion temperature also affects chemical composition of an infused beverage solution. Thus, an operator may find it advantageous to have precise control of brewing/infusion temperature during the brewing process to optimize flavor. The vast majority of beverage brewing systems utilize a constant volume solvent supply system whereby solvent is dispensed from a boiler by pumping solution into the boiler. Any temperature differential between the dispensed solution and the solution replacing the dispensed solution in the boiler makes it theoretically impossible to dispense solution with a consistent temperature and the larger the volume. Further, the faster the rate dispensed, the greater the temperature variation. Therefore, a beverage brewing system that affords precise, accurate and consistent temperature solution for the full production of the brewed beverage independent of beverage size and infusion rate would enable optimization of beverage flavor and consistency is thus needed.
Many known beverage brewing assemblies do not provide the user the ability control the fluid flow rate in a precise, effective, and efficient manner. Furthermore, no known beverage brewing assembly affords the user the ability to select and achieve a predetermined infusion duration and dispensed volume. Moreover, many, if not all, known beverage brewing systems do not provide a solvent pumping assembly that also incorporates a heating element that effectively transmits generated heat to the solvent housed by the solvent pumping assembly.